How to simplify your model for 3D printing

The best way to simplify a complex model for 3D printing is to reduce its triangle mesh. Sometimes called decimating, this process takes away a lot of the complex geometry that is cracking to have for model online simply not so good for models on the print bed.

All STL files are made of lots of triangles some big, some very small, that reproduce the curves and bumps you meet on the model, and then when you look at a curve what you are seeing is hundreds of tiny triangles making that expect curved.

With 3D Builder, we can decimate those triangles to reduce the complexity and decrease the time the model takes to print, thereby saving the states filament also.

More than: How to divide your models for 3D printing

Footstep by pace

Open the model in 3D Builder
Select the Edit tab
Cull Simplify
Apply the slider to select the percentage of reduction
Select the Reduce Faces checkmark
Click the Repair model box in the bottom right.

In depth

In one case y'all have called which model you want to decimate, you can load it into 3D Builder. From at that place you will need to go to the edit tab and click simplify. Here yous volition come across a slider that allows yous to chose the percentage of triangle to reduce the model by, the higher the pct, the more than triangles will be removed. There is a lot of trial and mistake involved here as removing likewise many triangles volition destroy the fine details of your model.

The default is set to l pct, but I find that can be too aggressive. I would showtime at around 20-five per centum and movement upward to xxx-3 percent if yous feel confident the model will support it. As you can see in the above pictures the more you decimate this less detail you get — have a close look at the medallion effectually Buddy Cthulhu'southward neck — and so showtime with a lower number and piece of work your way upwardly.

One time you take clicked the Reduce Faces checkbox, you volition virtually always encounter a warning box in the right-hand corner asking you to repair your damaged model. This is perfectly normal as removing the triangles tin make the model no longer a solid object. Past clicking on the repair button, 3D Builder volition automatically repair those errors and brand the model printable over again.

More than: Everything you need to start 3D printing

Subsequently Care

Once you have reduced your model to the appropriate level there a few things yous tin can do to make sure it notwithstanding looks excellent and prints well, hollowing, smoothing and fixing.

Hollowing

Past Hollowing your model, y'all reduce the amount of plastic needed to print it. Now a lot of slicing software will automatically hollow your model for you and use infill to fill up space, but sometimes this is counterproductive. A lot of models require very niggling, if any, infill to print successfully. By using the hollow tool in 3D Builder, y'all tin can create a wall thickness of effectually 1mm-ane.5mm and potentially cut out the need for infill birthday.

Smoothing

Using 3D Builders smoothing tool volition aid you with some models, to remove some of the precipitous edges caused by reducing faces. This volition essentially add more than triangles back to certain areas and so tin feel counterproductive, but it always adds fewer triangles than you lot took abroad, so yous still have the cyberspace win of lower triangles and a great model.

Netfabb Model Repair

Using a repair service like Netfabb is always the last thing I do earlier setting a model into a slicer for press. By uploading your model into Netfabb, they tin can clarify information technology, find the errors that 3D Builder may take missed and repair them. It volition then spit out a new model for you with _fixed suffix. You lot should save and utilise that model for 3D printing.

Final thoughts

Decimating models is incredibly helpful whether you lot are using someone else's or when you are making your own, especially if you are making your own. When creating 3D models, the programs tend to overdo the geometry as they assume you are making models for computer-based applications. Past reducing the faces of your models, you can go a much amend upshot for your 3D prints.

Accept you always decimated models for 3D printing? Let us know in the comment section whatever tips or tricks you might have for making your models simpler.

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